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Friday, 23 September 2016

I’ve
just been reading if your storyline is stuck, go and sweep the kitchen floor
but I’ve gone one better, (at least more pleasurable) I’ve watered, fed and
dead-headed all the indoor pot plants. And
it’s given me an idea.

Has anyone noticed when travelling, say overseas or even
when in one’s own country, that your reading choices change?

On a local break do you now flip through magazines or
short stories because they’re easier to digest? In the stress of shortened time
frames between moving on or going for a picnic, or moving from the all-purpose
studio bach to some peace under a tree, is it easier to just flip through the
local newspaper?

What if you’re a writer? Do you make copious notes to
use in a future novel? Maybe you make special observations when you pass
through a more down and out area on an island or in the ‘we don’t do tourist
area’ of a port you’ve never been to before.

In other words, does travel for whatever reason change
your thinking in a way that alters your writing vocabulary or enthusiasm or
even your interest in the process?

Maybe you’ve been ill, or even disturbingly ill,
obviously if you’re in hospital the constant comings and going are disturbing,
so we’ll take that as a given and you can neither read nor write. But assuming
you’re at home and not in pain, does the time you now have in your lap, change
your thinking and consequently your writing?

What about choosing books when you’re laid up? Do you
make different choices from say, crime or travel to light romance or humour? Or
maybe the other way around? Maybe you prefer something more practical when one
day you’ll be back on your feet and into such interests as ‘how to build a
tree-house’ or a new gardening plan.

Or is it possible, in these circumstances of travel or
health, the genre makes no difference at all. That nothing changes. As one
travel greeting card once pronounced, ‘Wherever in the world you end up, there you are.’

Friday, 9 September 2016

I’ve just finished writing what has proved to be the most
fraught book I’ve ever tackled. It was the story of a Jewish family living in
Poland at the time of the Holocaust. Not only was the subject painful to
research but the surviving family members were quite naturally sensitive to
anything that impinged on their long-held beliefs.

I didn’t know when I started that my research would throw up
such challenges. As I progressed, sometimes naively enthusiastic, I think the
family began to feel threatened. They were often reluctant to accept my
findings and, at one stage, they pulled out of the project completely. I could
use the story, they said, but I had to change the names so they would not be
identified with what I had discovered. It wasn't what they had been told.

Changing names of those who died in a German death camp felt
like a betrayal; a betrayal too far. With a deep sense of sorrow I changed the
names as requested. Then the family read my research and the first draft of the
book and there was a change in the climate. ‘Your research is impressive and
has integrity,’ they said. ‘You have found out stuff we never knew. We
acknowledge your honesty and ask you to use our real names.’ So the names were
changed. One son was not able to accept my work and asked for his name to be
disguised, so another name change. A few weeks later he came back to me saying
his siblings had reverted to their real names so he ought to as well. So, there
was a further name change. I think there were five different name changes before
the end.

I doubt they will ever totally accept my findings and that’s
okay. I remember when I wrote another bio, The Lives of Alice Pothron, there
was a constant rumbling ‘but that’s not what my mother told me’. Writing a book
about family will constantly throw up arguments and contradictions. Memory is
fallible, reputations easily damaged; time-cemented beliefs can crumble. You
have to be adamant and rely on history, not family memories.

The book Out of Poland, when the best revenge is to
have survived will be available in September 2016 from your local book
store (you may have to ask them to order it) or from my website www.jennyharrison-author.com